Well, here we are. In one week, we will have been living in Scotland for two months. I left my laptop in the U.S. for my brother to dispose of since it was literally falling apart and I just this week purchased a new laptop. I only mention this since I will essentially just be providing an overview of where we’re at in this post and will discuss more about certain aspects of our experience so far in other posts (I have a backlog of topics that I’ll start typing out and will set them to post weekly… I think).

Our flight over went really well. We splurged for slightly better seats (economy plus I think) and it was so worth it. The flight felt much more comfortable than our flights when we came here last year. Heathrow was a little slice of hell but the nice part was we were able to go through passport control during our layover which allowed us to skip customs, collect our bags in Edinburgh, and head to the taxi, so it was a good use of a long layover. Bags were fine, everything survived.

We arrived to our Airbnb and it was a great little flat with a lovely host who was heading north for the month. The flat was in an area we weren’t familiar with so we were a little disoriented at first. The first day was honestly a little overwhelming. While we were glad to finally be here there was also the “oh God, we are now living in another country” moment which for me was an overwhelming feeling and can cause one to feel quite small and alone. I’ll go into that more in another post. This whole experience has been and is still an emotional rollercoaster.

Things started to feel a little more normal, less isolating, after we saw two of our friends that first week. We became more familiar with the neighborhood (Abbeyhill) and really found it to be a perfect location for us (a central location for the things we were doing). We spent a bit of time in Leith, which was right up the road, and fell in love with that area. Ultimately, we tried to find a flat to let in that area and had no luck… I’ll stop there, that’s for another post.

The end of July was approaching and we were quickly running out of time to find a flat to let. Most Airbnb flats in Edinburgh were booked for the festival but we were blessed and found a perfect little Airbnb that backed right up to Holyrood Park that would take us and our dogs for two weeks and not charge us a fortune for it. That bought us two weeks to secure a flat. The flat search was a nightmare. We picked the worst time of year to look in both Glasgow and Edinburgh and trying to find a flat with two dogs… HA! We did find a great flat in Glasgow that was willing to take a chance on us and our dogs and moved in one day before our time at the Airbnb was up. PHEW!

Now here we are in the West End of Glasgow. It’s a great area and we’re incredibly grateful to finally have an address so we can start establishing our lives here. Over the last week we have secured a bank account, applied for our NINos (National Insurance Numbers), set up our UK cell phone numbers, and so on. Now it’s time to start thinking about jobs… ok, I’ve been thinking about jobs but have no idea what the hell I’m going to do. I’m sure I’ll post about that process eventually.

We have no friends in the city of Glasgow which has thrown us back into that feeling of isolation that we had when we initially arrived in Edinburgh; however, we at least had friends in Edinburgh. We have friends that are a 30 minute train ride south of here and they have been so good to us (one of them drove all the way out to Edinburgh to bring us and our dogs to our new flat). We have been able to go visit them and then tomorrow we will go visit another friend who is also down south. I do look forward to meeting people within Glasgow. It’s an odd feeling knowing that in a large city full of people we don’t know a single one of them. It’s a terribly isolating feeling.

Years ago I used to take aerial classes (trapeze, silks, rope, etc. (circus arts)) and then we moved to an area where it was too difficult to get to the classes so I stopped. I have literally, yes literally, dreamt about returning to aerials ever since then and I was so excited to learn that I live reasonably close to TWO aerial studios. I start classes the day after tomorrow and I’m losing my mind I’m so excited. I also went to a church last weekend as well and will try that one again this Sunday. While I consider myself a person of strong faith church can be a scary place for me, so while this feels a bit like cliff diving I am hoping to find some community there.

I’m just trying to find my place in our new world over here. I am so glad to be here and while I can’t imagine ever moving back to the U.S. I am not going to lie, this is hard, this is really f*#king hard. I was under no delusion that this would be easy and I can tell you it’s even more overwhelming than I could have possibly prepared myself for. Despite the struggle, we are home, this is where we are supposed to be and one day things will feel a little more normal.

Anyone reading this will notice I’m mostly speaking about how I’m feeling, what I’m doing, my experiences, and not mentioning my husband as much. This is because while we are experiencing this all together both of our experiences are unique to us as individuals. I can attest to what I’m feeling and my point of view and for the purpose of this blog I will stick to that and will allow him to share his experiences where and how he deems appropriate. For now, I’m going to wrap this up. I am currently saving my posts to a folder and will eventually get a wordpress site and will set these to publish weekly or so, so I will go into more detail on individual topics in future posts. Ok, I’ll hush up now. 😉